Days 9 and 10: Limit my caffeine intake

This is one of my favorite “bumper stickers” of all time because it’s so true! Although I enjoy my job, there are times when the tasks I have to complete are less than glamorous and I’m confidant that I could not accomplish them without help from my favorite stimulant. But let’s be honest here, I probably could not do any of my normal, everyday tasks without coffee. Although one cup a day is fine, even two some days, I can’t actually remember the last day I had just 2 cups of my addiction. [I’m averaging about 3-4 cups a day]. Although it’s a giant improvement from the pot-a-day I was gulping down in college, I’m still drinking entirely too much caffeine in a day’s time.

Too much caffeine can leave you shaking!

This realization [that I can’t function in society without a boost from caffeine] brought me to the mini-lution for days 9 and 10: Limit my caffeine intake. Even though it was really easy to come up with, I knew it will be a nightmare to follow through.

Day 9: The hardest day of both of them, for many reasons. When you go from having 4 cups of coffee and a soda a day to one cup of coffee and no soda, it’s really hard to adjust. The hardest part of the day to get through was the 3 p.m. hour, which is when I hit the “afternoon slump.” This is usually when I reach for a Coke Zero or Diet Dr. Peppar and not having that pick me up really affected my energy level, as well as my motivation and enthusiasm. It took everything in me not to raid the fridge and chug every soda I could find. When 5 p.m. finally rolled around, I felt more awake and energized [mainly because the work day was over], but that soon wore off on the long commute home. I went to bed at around 9 p.m. that night, vowing to never subject myself to such ridicule again.

Me during my first day of “limited” caffeine

Day 10: Surprisingly, was not as hard as the first day. Maybe it’s because there was a light at the end of the tunnel, either way, I got through most of the day with ease. The afternoon slump still hit me pretty hard, but I found it much easier to come back from than day 9. The hardest part, though, was staying up past 9 pm [American Idol helped though, I will give you that!] I still felt sluggish and fatigued all day, but I found it was much easier to combat the second day around.

So did I continue to limit my caffeine for days to follow? I am happy to report that I am down to only two cups of coffee a day and NO afternoon soda! As much as I would like to completely stiffen my desperate need for caffeine, I know, at this point in time, with so much on my plate, that it is not a feasible or good option for me. So I give myself two hearty pats on the back for limiting and one day hope to live freely without it!

I’m happily down to just 1-2 cups a day!

So why can’t people drink 2 pots of coffee a day and a 24 pack of soda? Well, besides obvious dietary reasons, there are actual hazards to consuming too much caffeine which can have serious long-term effects on your body. The biggest dangers one faces from consuming too much caffeine includes insomnia, dehydration, high blood sugar and symptoms of withdrawal. Sure, many of these symptoms take a while to appear, however, once they do, they are very hard to take care of. For many people struggling with insomnia and high blood pressure, they often face years of battling these problems before any solutions are found.